Gardiner Sanitary District
Board of Directors Meeting
September 15, 2011
Meeting called to order by Jackie Degman, present were Board Members Mike Quartararo, Charlotte Hinshaw and Marc Fullhart. Also present were Mary Chambers, Mark Ciechanowski, Ray Davenport, Susanna Nordhoff, Bob Brown, Dennis Conger, and Deborah Yates.
Written copies of the previous minutes were passed out and read, Jackie suggested that the minutes be amended to include the spraying of Bolin Island pump station as part of the cleanup process and Mike motioned to accept the minutes as amended, seconded by Charlotte, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Written copies of the financial report were passed out and read, Marc motioned to accept the report and pay the bills, seconded by Mike, motion passed with a unanimous voice vote.
Old Business:
Charlotte reported that no progress had been made on replacement of the furnace. Mike gave Charlotte a catalog on heaters so that she could estimate a cost for the replacement and call for bids by electricians. The cost of the heaters Mike had suggested using are approximately $300.00 each and we would need 2 heaters for the meeting room and kitchen. Charlotte will also contact PUD to see if a rebate will be available for this type of heater.
Susanna reported that she had noticed that there is an electrical panel on the outside of the building that is not locked and Marc said he would look into getting it secured.
Mike reported that the blog information is posted and complete enough to go live unless anyone has anything to add or change. Everyone agreed that he should make it go live and they could make any changes as they see how it used.
Jackie reported that the Bolin Island site has been cleared and that Crossbow is being used to keep the weeds and brush from coming back; the site is much more visible and therefore safer for employees as they access it. The clearing and spraying will have to be maintained every year or two and it will be much cheaper to maintain than letting it get to the condition that it had been allowed to reach. Jackie also reported that she and Susanna had met with Atty McClintock regarding the American Bridge easement demands for insurance and new survey. We feel that that the insurance demands were much too excessive and our current coverage should be adequate, as they are with the county easement also being processed at this time, and that a new survey is completely unnecessary since a professional survey was done recently at district expense and American Bridge has a copy of that.
New Business:
Safety Meeting: Susanna reported that she has procured basic safety gear for the pump stations. Mike was asked to purchase ear muffs and nitro gloves from a source that he knows has the right quality gear at the cheapest prices.
Ray’s Report: Ray reported that DEQ has requested amendments to the Emergency Backup Plan that was submitted on 8/16/2011 so he has done additional work to the plan and amended it to include the changes that DEQ requested. He passed out copies of the new plan but then reported that just today he had been contacted by Francis Dzata of the DEQ with a suggestion that they use the abandoned water main that is already in place across the river to divert the sewage into in the event that the main sewage line breaks. All that would be required in this case are valves and short diversion pipes on each end to reroute the sewage until the main line could be repaired instead of temporary storage and treatment on the Island and subsequent dumping into the river of less than perfectly treated sewage. The cost would be considerably less and the consequences less detrimental to the environment. Ray hasn’t had a chance to pursue this avenue yet because it is such a new development. Since he has already put additional effort into amending the existing plan, more additional time will be required to research and prepare yet another plan and he needs authorization to continue this pursuit as he is already requesting an additional $675.00 for the work he’s done to date on the amended plan. Mary questioned whether he was requesting $675.00 net or gross and Ray said net. Mary reminded him that he needs to make his requests in gross dollars instead. Mike made a motion to allow Ray to find out more from the DEQ on the possibilities of using the abandoned water main and Marc seconded, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote. Marc motioned to pay the additional amount that Ray has requested and Charlotte seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Managers Report:
Susanna reported that the postmaster has requested to use our meeting hall on October 19th at 6:30pm for a town hall meeting regarding the proposed closure of the Gardiner Post Office and also if we would include a flyer in the next billing to announced the meeting. Mike made a motion to allow both requests and Marc seconded, the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Susanna also reported that the meeting with Douglas County regarding the proposed scope of work is still pending waiting on Becky Bryant to schedule it.
Susanna’s request for a certification test has been approved and if she passes the test she will be granted the Grade 1 certification without needing the additional experience time normally required as they will allow her past experience to qualify.
Susanna reported that the manhole covers at Bolin Island need to have a better pry bar as the existing one is not working well. Mike and Ray will access the problem and try to fix or replace the existing tool.
Susanna questioned the problems with the tide gates on the drainage system serving Gardiner as a resident had brought it to her attention. Everyone concede that the tide gates have not worked properly for quite some time and several requests to the county for repairs in the past have fallen on deaf ears. Deborah Yates suggested contacting the Umpqua Soil and Water Conservation District as she is under the impression that they are conducting a study or research of some kind on the local tide gates.
Ray is going to conduct a confined space entry lesson for Susanna and Mark tomorrow morning and teach them to use the camera inside the pipes.
Susanna questioned the location of the “As Built’s” that she needs to locate sewer lines for residents when they request it. Marc thought that they were probably in the attic storage and he would help locate them.
Jackie’s Report:
Jackie reported that she and Susanna had met with the DEQ at their request on Thursday the 8th to just have a review of their plans and future options. Jackie was very happy with how Susanna presented the district to them and how knowledgable she was when they questioned them.
The DEQ wants GSD to be preparing for Plan B in case the county funding falls through and they want to know what the district intends to do in that situation. John Gasik was concerned that due diligence wasn’t observed when the IP contract was drafted therefore allowing the possibility of future problems. He suggested that the county’s request for an independent study was a result of the lack of costs being forthcoming by Reedsport originally.
Items not on the Agenda, Open to the Public:
Mark C’s Report: Mark C. reported that the Fire Department had met and discussed the need for parking lot repairs and the volunteers would be willing to provide the labor for the repairs if GSD will split the cost of the materials with the Fire Dept. He also reported that the Fire Department is in need of additional volunteers and have been having trouble recruiting them so they would like to include a flyer in our next billing to try to recruit new members. Mike made a motion to allow flyers in the bills, Marc seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Mark also reported that the district cell phone has completely quit working and no one could really see the need for maintaining a cell phone so the decision was made to have Mary call AT&T to cancel the cell phone service.
Susanna reported that the Association of Water Utilities membership is coming due and asked whether she should renew it. They will be having a conference in Florence in November that would probably be beneficial to attend. Charlotte made a motion to have the membership dues of $75.00 renewed and the conference cost authorized for Susanna, Mike seconded and the motion passed by unanimous voice vote.
Jackie called for an executive session (pursuant to ORS 192.660(2)(i) to discuss performance of the Operations Manager.
The board came out of executive session and Marc motioned to adjourn, Mike seconded and the meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Mary Chambers (Office Manager)
